The9

Normally I quite likes the fact that he sounds intelligent and doesn't say anything of consequence while sounding positive, but he doesn't normally say things quite so obviously nonsense.

So do I, but in this particular instance he was talking absolute shoite.

Well yeah, but he should probably be trying not to sound stupid to people who still bother to actually listen to him.

I thought the ref got it spot on, the Cardiff striker's first touch ended up rolling off the pitch for a throw in - he was going wide when the keeper clattered him, and there was a defender who'd have got back by the time he got the ball under control if he'd managed it at all. Paul Jewell said he could have gone, not that he thought it was a red.

Except of course that this is utter bull, because you can be consistent without being good, and being consistently bad is in no way linked to success.

Or white and red... Updated with the Sporting Cristal, but definitely not the new England kit... (see below).

I suspect most of them think it's "there" fault. The thick ****s.

You snooze you lose. http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?14620-Pompey-Takeover-Saga&p=1277584#post1277584

I was going to provide a recap of previous deductions of more than 10 points, but Jesus there's some complex stuff out there. So here's Nick Owen off 80s telly to explain Luton's -30 in League Two (on top of their previous -10 for Admin that sent them down from League One in 2007/8 ). http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/luton_town/7438024.stm . The deduction was before the 2008/9 season started. Leeds' -15 was for exiting admin without a CVA (all Ken Bates' doing), http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leeds_united/6920103.stm - widely regarded as being the FL's way of getting back at Leeds as the -10 rules as they stand now weren't in place and they dodged the original -10 by going into admin when already in the relegation zone in the last week of the season : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6624731.stm. It was those fckers we had to blame for the deferred -10 which delayed our return to the Championship, as they changed the rules soon after. Leeds appealed the -15 and eventually an arbitration panel supported the FL. Rotherham in 2008 were deducted 17 points - like Leeds this was at the start of a season, again for failing to exit admin with a CVA - as HMRC were voting against all CVAs at the time, and still are, as they refuse to accept their new non-preferred role behind football creditors. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/rotherham_utd/7543195.stm AFC Bournemouth were also deducted 17 points at the start of 2008/9 (alongside Luton and Rotherham in League Two) due to having a previous insolvency within 2 years and for not having an agreed CVA. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1042684/Bournemouth-start-League-Two-17-point-deduction.html So basically what it looks like, is that Skate Cheats FC will get a minimum -10, plus whatever the FL decides to add to that - the areas in question are : Will the FL wait for them to exit the CVA for any additional punishment or has it been coincidence that the last 4 punishments over 10 points have happened in the summer ? and If even they have an extra punishment soon for their repeat admin, they could still get further punishment on exiting CVA, especially if HMRC aren't marginalised, as they are currently a big chunk of the debt. Assuming they get that far. Oh yeah, and they'd better hope none of their ex-money men own up to any irregular payments...

Anyone got a twitter link for a reporter (or around) in the court yet ? I don't usually bother, but, y'know. PS I'd just like to point out I used to work with Meringue-govian and he is a frothing moron. Just kidding, though he did attempt a spirited defence of Redknapp's transfer policy circa 2004 (when I noted that only about 20% of his signings played more than 10 first team games [Wapenaar, Mbesuma...]).

I thought they'd canned him ?

Saw he was interviewed, fortunately couldn't hear the talentless tit.

Well, I've just read the Laws of the Game (again) AND the IFAB Interpretations http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/worldfootball/clubfootball/01/37/04/28/interpretation_law12_en.pdf , and there's absolutely nothing about violent conduct mentioning "hands to the face" or "above shoulder height", so he's talking out of his arse about that, never mind the impossible punch that Sharp is supposed to have thrown whilst pointing at Noble.

Raising your hands has nothing to do with it... Lambert lowered his hands to El Abd.

You get 0 points for second place, 3 for first. HTH.

He was on the big screen for about 5 minutes so I'm pretty sure a lot of people can confirm he was there, he got quite a loud chorus of boos from the away end actually.

Loads of footy ones : Stood next to Fabio Capello at Euro 2004 in the VIP bar before Italy v Bulgaria in Guimaraes. Saw John Barnes outside Stade de France before Scotland v Brazil in 1998. Klaus Toppmuller (ex Hamburg boss) was in the box next to me for Latvia v Germany in Bessa Stadium in Porto. Graham Kelly the ex-FA secretary wandered past me at USA 94 in San Francisco. Gordon Strachan and his mate Mark McGhee were parked next to me at the school car park near Villa Park for the Scotland v Holland match at Euro 96 too (and Andy Gray was in the crowd just behind me at the match). More randomly I got Nigel Kennedy the "punk violinist"'s autograph outside the Dell circa 1993 (yes we were playing Villa) and bumped (not literally ) into Kirsty Gallagher right outside Putney tube station after Fulham v Saints in 2004. Both she and Capello are a lot shorter than they look on telly. Oh yeah, and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was on the same flight to Berlin as me heading for World Cup 2006. Come to think of it, major tournaments are a hotbed of celeb spotting, I also shared an hotel with the Bulgaria squad in Euro 2004 - they managed to afford a Novotel and Hristo Stoichkov popped in to walk around the bar making sure we knew who he was... And Iwan Thomas walked past us on the way to the ground near the fire station a couple of weeks ago - and the drunk loser from One Born Every Minute was drunk and walking past us on the way back telling everyone he was the bloke off the telly the same day. Oh, and I haven't spoken to any of them (except one "can I have your autograph"), not my thing.

Just as well I had cancelled, I'm injured again anyway.

Funnily enough it looked exactly like it did at the time from my vantage point 100 yards away in the opposite corner of the ground - Taylor came from nowhere, pushed up against Sharp, who was forced backwards, then shoved him over when he was moving backwards and off balance. From my angle you could see clearly it was his face, what you couldn't see was that it was a two handed shove because his one arm was in front of the other. The more interesting bit to me was that when Noble went down for the penalty, Sharp didn't even break his running stride - if there's contact the "fouler" is always impeded somehow, you can't trip someone up and just keep running as there has to be some resistance or amendment to the fouling player's stride or balance after the contact. You really can't tell if there was a collision from that angle, but Sharp's movement certainly didn't appear to suggest contact. As for the miss, yeah it was terrible, but you can see from his body shape that he was planted on his left foot which would have given him the chance to divert the ball into the open side of the goal, and so he tried to use his right foot instead, which was pointing straight at Green. Terrible miss, but understandable.

I'm amused that Jackanory is happy to make a moral distinction between what is and isn't an "acceptable grassing subject even on fellow Sotonians" for him, but appears incapable of grasping that everyone else has made the same moral distinctions, but they have chosen to include "being a racist" in the categories of things that aren't acceptable. As for "why didn't you confront him?", the answer is because there are other people who are paid to do that for you, that's what a police force is for, and how civilised society works.

You mean "my fwends aren't going" ? Steve told me on the weekend that he knows someone who should be able to bring in a bunch of half-decent mates. Run POTSIE run !

I can't see any benefit to them renewing, the worldwide exposure would probably be wasted or overexpose them anyway.

Ah, Capella.

You keeping Danny on his toes, Stevo?

The Sun has an article entitled "Portsmouth in Administration" which currently says nothing of the sort (and also forgets they were also in admin in 1998 when counting their periods of administration). Useless : http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4120631/Portsmouth-in-administration.html